Innovation Journeys
Stories of Invention & Discovery at UW
UW innovators each have their own story to tell about their commercialization journey — their inspiration, hurdles, and desire to make an impact. Learn more about some of them below.
AltPep
There are over 50 known amyloid diseases affecting over a billion people worldwide. AltPep was spun off from Professor Valerie Daggett’s research group to address the critical need: Alzheimer’s detection and treatment. The AltPep platform is based on a collection of de novo designed synthetic peptides. The growing library is an arsenal that specifically targets the root causes of disease at the molecular level.
Icosavax
Icosavax is committed to developing safe and effective vaccines against infectious diseases that address important unmet medical needs to save lives and improve health. They were founded on breakthrough computationally-designed virus-like particle technology, developed at the Institute for Protein Design and exclusively licensed for a variety of infectious disease indications from the University of Washington.
Membrion
Membrion is a UW spinoff whose technology uses readily available, non-toxic and low-cost materials to produce advanced ceramic ion exchange membranes which perform better and cost significantly less than today’s ceramic and polymer options. They are currently deploying this technology to the rapidly growing desalination market, helping to address the global water crisis.
Other stories
Success at CoMotion takes many forms – from successful UW spinoffs and startups, to acquisitions of UW projects or startups by leading companies, to licensing of UW IP to industry leaders for further development.
CoMotion supported spinoffs & startups
Licensed to existing company
Licensed direct-to-user
In addition, check out Institute for Protein Design’s Translational Investigator Research Program page to learn about other spinoffs CoMotion has supported.
Recent UW spinoff milestones
